"Buy Bud," Long Island University
November 15, 1962
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print mounted on paperboard
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to image): 24.5 x 17.6 cm (9 5/8 x 6 15/16 in.) mount: 43.1 x 35.3 cm (16 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation
Accession Number
1997.123.1
Art Historical Context
André Kertész's *Buy Bud*, captured on November 15,1962, at Long Island University, exemplifies the Hungarian-born photographer's masterful eye for the poetry in everyday urban life. A of modern photography, Kertész moved to New York in 1936 and became renowned for his intimate street scenes, distorted perspectives, and to transform ordinary moments into visual haikus. This gelatin silver print, mounted onboard, showcases the medium's hallmark rich tonal gradations and fine detail, a staple of mid-20th-century fine art photography that allowed artists like Kertész to achieve museum-quality per...
About the Artist
André Kertész
André Kertész, born Andor Kertész on July 2, 1894, in Budapest, Hungary, to a middle-class Jewish family, initially pursued a conventional path as a clerk at the Budapest Stock Exchange after graduating from the Academy of Commerce in 1912. Self-taught in photography after purchasing his first camera that year, he captured his early poetic visions of Hungarian landscapes and peasant life, includin...